Jerome Bitun

I saw this on CNN Money and I thought it gives great advice on money. http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/moneymag/0708/gallery.20_rules.moneymag/index.html

I was talking to a friend of my last night about how people just put up their information online without a second thought and how easy it would be to steal their identity. We were talking about the kind of information people put up on sites like Friendster, Facebook, etc. Our friends and other people post their e-mail, birthdates, telephone numbers, pictures, etc. He mentioned about a friend who put up his info on Friendster and Yahoo, when one day, someone asked to be added to his Yahoo Messenger. He didn't know who it was but just added the person anyway. A few days later, the person sent his friend a link and when he clicked the link, it too him to a website that copied his password and info on his Yahoo Messenger. Now that the person has his friend's info and contact list, the thief sent a message to his contact list asking them for monetary help saying that he needed to go back to the Philippines and needed money. His friends sent the guy money and I believe that thief got...

As I write this, the Dow Jones almost hit 13,000. It was 17 points away from 13,000 before ending the day down 42.58. The Canadian housing market is on the rise again as the summer weather is coming, where there is more sunshine and more people are able to go outand look at homes. You've probably heard about the Real Estate market in the US where prices have been going down since last year. And the price of oil looks like its going up again where the morning prices at the pump is around120.99 a litre. I'm not sure if you also noticed, but shows on TV especially on HGTV have been geared towards housing and selling homes. Shows like "Flip ThisHouse", "Big City Broker", "Designed To Sell" and "House Hunters" just to name a few. I'm sure you all know, we are looking at a real estate bubble. Although a lot of people would say otherwise and I know people would argue that this time it's different and that the real estate market will not ...

Saw something interesting today. With the run up in real estate prices in the last few years in the US. Someone plotted the US home prices adjusted for inflation as a roller coaster ride. Here's the video.

Almost every one of us has credit cards. But how many of us pay an annual fee on our credit cards? If you're paying an annual fee on your credit card, my question is, why? Are you paying an annual fee to get lower interest rates or it is to get the reward miles and points? Is it actually worth it to pay $50 to $100 in annual fees for a reward miles card or is it better to save those annual fees and pay your airfare directly instead? If you're paying an annual fee to get a low interest card. Are you paying off your balance every month? If you are paying off your balance, why do you need to pay a fee to get a low interest? These are just some things that people take for granted. Card companies make millions a year on these annual fees because they know we just never give a second thought about them. In the long run, those fees stack up and we end up paying thousands of dollars for something we never really need or use. Just like the extended warranties they sell for computers or ...

Every month I get a phone call from our clients saying that their credit card has been subjected to fraud. I never used to get these calls but it seems that the number of cases have really gone up in the last six months. It is a big pain in the neck to clear up your account and go through the motions of cancelling your credit card, getting a new one and making sure you don't pay for the items that was purchased on your credit card. The bigger problem is identity theft when someone actually seems to have taken over your life. Here are eight things you can do to protect yourself from credit card and identity theft. 1. Keep your information private. Memorize your SIN number and don't keep it in your wallet. If your wallet is stolen, so is your SIN number. Keep it in a secure place like a safe at home or a locked drawer. Don't keep it lying around where a thief might break in and steal it. Don't give out your SIN number to anyone. The banks, insurance companies and other fi...

The federal government surprised everyone on Halloween when they announced that income trusts who have been publicly traded before November 1, 2006 will become taxable in 2011, with the exception of certain real estate income trusts. What will happen is income trust will be taxed the same as Canadian corporations. Trust that haven't started trading in the stock market yet will be taxed using the new rules starting 2007. This announcement created a huge drop in the S&P/TSX Composite index, down 294.2 points or 2.4 percent to 12,050.39. The TSX Income Trust sector fell more than 12 percent which saw the sector lose about $20 Billion in market value overnight. What lead to the decision to tax income trust can be read on this article from the Globe and Mail.